Ref pg 111 The Freemason in America
Scottish Rite helps create public education supported by the government.
After WW1 American Freemasonry began lobbying the Federal Government for federally funded public schools. In 1920 the Supreme Counsel Southern Jurisdiction USA, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite declared itself in favor of the creation of a Department of Education with a secretary in the cabinet.
The masonic historian Albert G. Mackey credited the Scottish Rite for the “passage of a federal education bill that embodied the principle of federal aid to the public schools in order to provide funds for the equalization of educational opportunities to the children of the nation.”
Ref The Freemasons in America pg 104-105
Harry S. Truman, known as “The buck stops here” president was Masonries 13th president of the United States. He received his Scottish Rite degrees in Kansas City in January and March of 1917. On October 19, 1945, he received his 33d at Washington D. C. while president.
Ref The Freemasons in America Pg 40
It has been said that in every pioneer settlement of the West first came the church, then the school, and then the Masonic Lodge.